There’s one major reason why you’re still making cold calls: they work. Sales expert Alen Mayersays cold calling is “an effective and powerful sales tool” — when done correctly. In a study byDiscoverOrg, 75% of 1,000 IT senior executives reported that they’d made decisions to book an appointment or attend an event as a result of cold calls they’d received.
From poor delivery to a bad script, it’s easy to mess up a cold call. But steer...

A new year means reflecting on your customers’ habits — including their spending patterns. After the holiday shopping frenzy, it’s no wonder that many customers are encountering feelings of loss aversion.
The principal of loss aversion suggests that people will avoid monetary losses at all costs, even when it doesn’t make logical sense. For example, people may hold on to items that they know they’ll never use or spend extra money unnecessarily just to earn vouchers or...

So now that you’ve reeled in a new customer, the hard work is over, right? In many cases, the work has just begun. Customer retention is just as important as customer acquisition. According to Amy Gallo’s report in the Harvard Business Review, “increasing customer retention rates by 5% can increase profits by 25% to 95%.” Plus, while the likelihood of a new customer buying your product is about 20%, the probability of an existing customer making...

While everyone wants to feel empowered and cared for by their insurance agent, few things can squash those happy vibes like getting a little too much attention. And once your client’s enthusiasm starts to fade — once she starts to question your motives — you run the risk of losing her to a competitor.
Here are three things to keep in mind if you want your clients feeling engaged without suffocating them:
1. Create an accessible content repository.
Sometimes,...

Over the last decade, there has been an enormous shift in focus from product to customer. Whereas product quality was once the main priority, customer interaction has taken center stage as the new frontier for achieving competitive advantage. Deep-level communication with customers leads to loyalty if nurtured properly. This loyalty means customer retention and customer retention means retaining market share. No wonder businesses are trending toward this shift so quickly.
Your company is probably no different. The...

Your sales team is fantastic, your email campaigns get enough opens and clicks to make your head spin, and your homepage views are through the roof. But your conversion rates? Not so much. It just doesn’t make sense, does it?
Well, let’s pause and see where the friction actually starts. Lots of people are interested in your product since they’re visiting your website to learn more, but once they are there, they drop off in droves. Check...

Marketing automation has been the pinnacle of customer engagement ever since Amazon managed to really get it right. The purpose of automation is to provide personalization without human intervention. This is useful and important at the very top of the funnel when it comes to directing customers on the right path. However, actually selecting and purchasing the products is another story.
It’s the Automation Apocalypse
Customers today love buying online because of the speed and access to price...

Any developer can attest to the fact that the greatest feeling while programming is the one we get when we fall into “the zone”. The biggest obstacles to getting into the zone are interruptions. An interruption can come from anywhere, like construction workers outside the window or laughing coworkers. One of the most significant, however, is when a coworker asks a question. Asking the question itself is not a bad thing - if it helps save...

In the Fall of 2013, Amazon launched a groundbreaking customer service feature available on their HD products. "Mayday" enables users to visually connect with a remote customer service agent with a single click. A small video feed pops up and allows for a natural, personalized interaction. Furthermore, the user’s device screen is visible to the support agent, allowing them to see the problem at hand, annotate the screen and explain procedures in the interface. Amazon CEO...

In design, the concept of “the crystal goblet” explains that a glass should be made of a clear material in order to showcase the liquid that it holds. In other words, the best tools are those that let the content or the message shine through. When it comes to communicating with online customers in real-time, the tools we use should be “invisible” — this means that they are so easy to use that they allow us...